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Suicide Blast in Kabul Kills 2 Civilians

KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber detonated his payload of explosives on Sunday in clogged traffic here, killing two people and wounding three, the Afghan authorities said.

The casualties were Afghan civilians who were either in cars or passing by on foot, officials said.

The target of the attack appeared to be a sport utility vehicle belonging to the German Embassy, the authorities said. Convoys of government officials, foreign diplomats and security forces frequently use the road, which passes in front of the Parliament building.

The blast perforated one side of the embassy vehicle with dozens of shrapnel holes and punctured its tires, but its sole occupant, an Afghan employee of the embassy, escaped unharmed, a spokesman for the German foreign service said.

Zabiula Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, said in a telephone interview that the group was responsible for the attack. Zemarai Bashary, the Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman, said the bomber was on foot.

Babur Shah Hassas, a Web site manager for Parliament, said he was strolling with a friend at about 2:30 p.m. when the attack occurred. He remembered seeing the white S.U.V. and a man on a bicycle. By some witness accounts, the bomber was on a bicycle or a motorbike.

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A woman searched for her son after a suicide bombing in Kabul on Sunday, fearing that he might have been among the victims.Credit
Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

“Suddenly there was a big blast, and me and my friend fell down and it was all dark and there was smoke coming out of the cars and I was so depressed,” Mr. Hassas, 23, recalled, speaking in English. When Mr. Hassas tried to get up, he realized he could not move his left leg.

A stranger — Mr. Hassas never learned his name — lifted him into a car and drove him to a hospital. Mr. Hassas said his friend was unhurt.

As he told his story, Mr. Hassas was lying on a gurney at the hospital, an I.V. in his arm, and doctors were preparing him for surgery to repair two fractures in his left leg and to remove a piece of shrapnel.

“I can’t determine whether the purpose of this attack was to destroy poor Afghans like me or to destroy foreigners,” he said, as the hospital staff wheeled him to an operating room.

Said Ali Akhbar, the governor of the Surkh Rod district, said in a telephone interview that the worker, Belqis Mazloomyar, was shot as the meeting was adjourning. Two suspects, both relatives of Ms. Mazloomyar, have been detained, Mr. Akhbar said, though he added that it was too early to establish a motive.

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Kai Eide, special representative of the United Nations for Afghanistan, said in a statement that “Ms. Mazloomyar was a cherished colleague and was well known for her activism in support of her community, in particular on women’s causes.” Also on Sunday, two Afghan journalists who were kidnapped by the Taliban last week were released, an Afghan official said.

The journalists — Dawa Khan Menapal of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Azizullah Popal, who worked for a local radio station in Zabul Province — were kidnapped by the Taliban on Wednesday in Ghazni Province, south of Kabul, said Gulab Shah Alikheil, the deputy governor of Zabul.

“They were freed through an effort by the elders of Zabul Province,” Mr. Alikheil said. “The government did not intervene and we let the elders negotiate.” He said both journalists were in good health.

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In Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province, NATO soldiers shot and killed an Afghan policeman in a car that was heading toward a NATO patrol at high speed on Saturday, according to a news statement issued Sunday by the NATO military command in Kabul.

The NATO patrol tried to slow the approaching car with hand signals, a flare and warning shots, the statement said. The soldiers fired directly into the car, bringing it to a halt. The soldiers removed a wounded man from the car and he was taken to a hospital, where he died of his wounds. NATO officials later discovered that the victim was a police officer, the statement said.

The Afghan government announced Sunday that it had executed seven convicted criminals on Saturday, bringing the total number of executions this year to 16, all of them in November.

Amid an emboldened Taliban insurgency and rising crime in the capital and elsewhere, President Hamid Karzai, who is personally opposed to the death penalty, has been under pressure to sign more execution orders. All of the executed prisoners had been Taliban fighters or violent criminals convicted of murder, rape or kidnapping, officials said.

Khalid Fazly and Abdul Waheed Wafa contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: Bomber Strikes Near Diplomats’ S.U.V. in Afghan Capital. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe